WSU basketball hosts Cal Poly

The Washington State Cougars (1-1) will attempt to rebound from their first loss of the season when they host the Cal Poly Mustangs (1-1) tonight at 6 p.m. at Beasley Coliseum. The game will be televised on Pac-12 Network or via the Pac-12 Now streaming app.

Last time out, the Cougars lost by nine on the road at Seattle University’s part-time semi-home in Kent, Wash.. It was a game in which they struggled mightily to score — their 69 points on 77 possessions was abysmal, led by some truly terrible shooting from CJ Elleby and Viont’e Daniels in the absence of Robert Franks, who sat out with a foot injury.

After the game, Ernie Kent said that they hoped Franks would be back this week, and since it’s this week, let’s hope that’s the case. Kent described the offense as “discombobulated” against the No. 212 defense in the country (via kenpom.com’s adjusted efficiency metric), but perhaps they can get fully combobulated against the Mustangs, who are No. 297 in defense (out of 353 teams).

Even if the offense is a mess again without Franks, the Cougars should be able to do some work defensively. The Mustangs are extremely turnover prone (309th in turnover percentage) and don’t assist on very many of their baskets (322nd in assist rate), which both ought to play into the Cougars’ favored 1-3-1 zone setup.

Kenpom.com sees this as a game No. 184 WSU should win 85 percent of the time against No. 317 Cal Poly, by an average score of 79-68.